The Fox and The Hound
by hflores74
Summary: Naruto's life was a living hell, but he was crafty and cunning enough to survive. Because of the bullying by one of his classmates, he would meet the woman that would be the love of his life and turned his life into something much better.
1. Chapter 1

"This is a fan fiction, I do not own Naruto in any from being anime, games or published format.

_Before I even begin I will say why I am writing this particular pairing. The fact is that I see the potential of this particular pairing for fun, smiles, romance, and even some good old fashioned revenge against bullies and help to some other people in the entire series, that deserve it, that need it or plainly should get it even if they don't know they need it. This will be a serious, commited relationship, with only 1 husband, 1 wife, 3 hounds and maybe some kids down he line. Now for the fans of a few characters a bit of a warning. Kiba I will give him a serious wake up call, and he will get his priorities straigh, those of you who like Sakura, I apologize, because I will beat on her every single chance I get. I simply like her just as much as the civilian council likes Naruto to tell the truth. Sasuke will stay pretty much the same, got to kill his brother, to revive his clan, to become the provebial sock puppet of Orochimaru. Neji will keep saying his excuses about Fate and Destiny, till Naruto kicks his teeth in. Then after some dentures and some much self exploration he will find love with Ten Ten. We have to admit the two are perfect for each other._

_So with no further delay, starts the story of the fox and the hound._

For everyone that visited the village, the village hidden in the leaves was a rather peaceful, tranquil and some would even call it pleasant place to visit, do business and some might even go to simply enjoy the atmosphere of the village and enjoy some of the best food in the land of fire. The Hokage was a kind, considerate and very understanding old man, the very image of what a kindly old grandfather would be.

But this was to everyone else, not for Naruto Uzumaki, the one they called the demon brat of Konoha. If there was a tree that caused misfortune by being hit with one of its branches, Naruto when the day he was born was thrown head first towards the ground and he hit every single branch on the way down. First he was an orphan and not the orphan that grows under the kind care of a gentle lady that ran the orphanage. No,the lady of the orphanage did things to Naruto that would have made the most insane, morally deprived pedophile look at her with a look of sheer disgust.

At the age of six he was thrown out of the orphanage and not because the person in charge did not have any more ways to make the child suffer, oh no, she had plenty of things planned to make the child wish he would die, the laws regarding the orphanage clearly stated that if no one would adopt a child by the age of six, that child would become a ward of the village, under the care of the Hokage.

Danzo actually wanted to adopt him, to give him a good family home and to make this child be able to live a decent life. And this was a whole pack of lies, he wanted to turn Naruto into one of his Root children. An emotionally dead, obedient drone with the power of the most powerful of the tailed beasts. This one time the hatred of the evil woman in charge of the orphanage actually protected Naruto without her even realizing it.

Hiruzen Sarutobi loved Kushina Uzumaki like the daughter he never had, and to see how Naruto was treated made him suffer in ways that he simply could not mention. He had to keep the village at peace, and if he did anything, and I mean anything to help Naruto. It would be the cause of outright civil war. So the only things he could do was what the law clearly allowed.

Naruto received a monthly amount for his personal needs, and the cheapest, dirtiest, barely functional apartment that anyone could ever imagine. The door if you could call it a door, was a piece of plywood on some rusted door hinges, and the lock was a piece of wire that Naruto tied to a hole on the side of the wall. His neighbors did what you would expect, called him names, kicked him, punched him, or just pain stabbed him with a rusty kunai.

The doctors would not treat him, and if he was gravely sick the doctors would pray that the demon brat finally died. So much about that oath they made when they became doctors. The shops either told him to get the hell out or over charged him for everything. The only piece of clothing he owned was an orange jumpsuit he found in a garbage can, and it was only usable after he washed off the varies horrible substances that were on it. Too big for him, but it was the only thing he had. His shoes were broken sandals that he saw an old lady throw at him.

Every year he would get a present from the village, by present I mean the village would chase him around the village in a mob, and try to beat him to death. When he tried to run away a dog masked ANBU found him and dragged him back to the village, only stopping to give him a few kicks and then continue to drag him by his foot back to the village.

When he was eight years old the old man as Naruto called him, came to pay him a visit. He began to ask him how he was doing and Naruto lied through his teeth about how good and kind his neighbors were, and how good his life was. Hiruzen being either naive or simply believing that Naruto would never lie to him, accepted what the boy said. Hiruzen would only need to open the broken down refrigerator to see the truth, but he did not.

He had come to him for a reason, Danzo has been pushing for Naruto to study under him, he was of age and should receive an education, if he would not attend the academy, then Danzo would be the next best thing to provide him with the training he needed to be a useful member of the village. Hiruzen told him that if he went to the academy he would learn to take better care of himself, to be respected by the villagers and that he would be able to go outside the village walls and see more of the world.

Naruto agreed to join the academy but under several conditions. One was that he be allowed access to all the books, scrolls and learning materials in the village library and his own personal library. If someone stopped him he held the right to send drag that person to his office and made said person confess of what he or she did. A village full of brats that want to play and not read anything beside manga asked him that, of course he would agree.

The next thing was that he would buy all his inital school gear and items, and any supplies after that. Hiruzen had to know why that is when he told him what most if not all the shops had been doing to him. He had been digging in the garbage behind local restaurants to be able to get enough food to live. To say Hiruzen was angry is like saying that Jiraiya was just a simple ordinary pervert. That was the moment that the fair pricing and treatment laws were born. Hiruzen wanted to call it something else, but he simply could not put it down on paper so he compromised and called them the fair pricing and treatment laws.

The last was that he could ask for a review on any tests by him. "But Naruto they teachers of the academy are moral and ethical examples to all the students, they would never give you any grade other than the one you deserved." Naruto simply asked him if they lived in the village? Hiruzen of course told him that they did. "If they do they have either hated me my whole life, tried to kill me at least once in my life, or prayed that someone else did. So you review my tests or I am not stepping a foot in a classroom. I will learn on my own."

"Danzo would use that force you to study with him, and I think you know what happens to those that study with him." Naruto said that if he tried he would simply tear off the seal on himself and let the big fox that his father stuffed into him, have his way with the village. "But Naruto that would kill you, I don't think you would throw away for life like that."

"What life are you talking about, old man? The one where I eat practically rotten food, get almost killed every other day or the one where people treat me like I am the cause of all bad things in the universe? The life you are saying I should protect is a life in hell. No, I take that back. Hell would be more merciful that this place. So agree to my conditions or I might as well try to runaway and live with a pack of foxes out in the wilderness. At least with them I would have a chance to live a somewhat normal life."

Faced with the choices he agreed to every single on of his demands, Hiruzen would only ask that before he would ever harm any of the villagers that he be given a chance to judge the actions of the person. Naruto agreed but he told him if it came to stopping someone from killing him or the moron running away, that moron forfeits the right to be judged and he dies on the spot.

Hiruzen simply did not like to see a boy as young as Naruto talk about killing in such a casual way. "Yes, Naruto you have the right to defend yourself. But be kind to the villagers, they are simple people, that have let their fears cloud their judgment." Naruto told him as he left that he would be as kind to them, as they are with him.

Hiruzen then decided to buy the things that Naruto would need. He went to one shop and bought a few sets of dark blue steel toed boots, cargo pants, combat shirts, belts, kunai, shuriken, scroll holsters and finally fingerless gloves. When the shop owner asked him if he why he was buying things for what looked like for a child entering the academy, he told the owner he was doing a favor to a friend of his family.

Hiruzen then went and bought a stove, a fridge and a twin size bed. He had all those items stuffed into one storage scroll. They went and bought enough instant ramen to feed a small army, and again he told all the shop owners the same thing as the first one, he was doing a favor for a friend of the family. At night he walked over to Naruto's den, it couldn't really be called an apartment, specially since he was washing a wall with a message telling him to die and go straight to hell where he belongs, and the worst it was written in dog feces.

Hiruzen told him that he had all the things he would need in the three scrolls that he was leaving on his bed. To call that thing a bed was indeed a kindness. Prison beds would be more comfortable than that thing. He had to ask how did that happened. "I went to buy and eat a bowl of ramen from the only joint that will sell to me at a price I can afford. and I come back and someone used this wall as a chalkboard and a dog turd as the chalk. Nothing new, this kind of thing happens at least four times per week."

Hiruzen was not going to stand there and let Naruto clean that up and he used a water jutsu to clean the wall off, and then a wind jutsu to dry it. "This is elemental jutsu, you will one day learn to use these yourself. Now come over and help me get these things out of these scrolls. He replaced the broken pieces of furniture with the stuff he had bought. and Naruto hid his new clothes and supplies under a hiding place behind a lose board at the bottom on his closet.

"So no excuses, you get the things you need to read from my library or from the village library and please hand that orange monstrosity and use the clothes I bough for you. That is practically screaming please kill me. You better go to bed you start going to the academy tomorrow, and I will drag you there if you do not wake up on time." He simply thanked him for the furniture and the other things and jumped on his bed and was asleep as soon as his faced touched his brand new pillow.

In his dream he was in a place that looked like a sewer. There were pipes all over and the water looked like the stuff he would find in a swamp. He walked until he found a large gate, behind the gate the eyes of a fox could be seen glaring with plenty of hatred at him. "Look, if you are trying to intimidate me, cut it out, people have glared like that my whole life. I am pretty immune to this kind of garbage."

The giant fox looked at him. "Well not only does my container finally visit me, but he tells me off before he even introduces himself. Well at the very least I am happy that you have some backbone. If you turned out to be a scared, crying coward I would really be angry. You know who I am don't you?" Naruto told him the Kyuubi No Kitsune, no other fox was his size or had nine tails.

"You know as well as I know that the instructors will not want you to learn a thing, they wouldn't want you to be trained if they are still trying to get us killed. So you get the reading materials from those libraries and when you do not understand something you ask me, and before you ask I am doing this to stay alive. If they kill you I die too. So you better get strong and fast for both of us to survive."

He was about to introduce himself, when the fox told him he knew exactly who he was, and he knew things that even he did not know, but he would only tell him after he earned it. Now he told him to think of the village and let him catch some sleep, tomorrow they had to attend the academy and he was not about to miss how he would react to the academy or his fellow classmates.


	2. Chapter 2

"This is a fan fiction, I do not own Naruto in any from being anime, games or published format."

When he entered the academy and walked towards the classroom, he was not wearing his usual orange clothes, but the clothes that the 3rd Hokage bought for him. When he entered his classroom, he waited for the teacher to see him. Iruka did his very best to introduce him to the class, and he was seated right in the middle of the middle row of seats in the middle of the class.

Naruto felt like someone had painted a target sign on his forehead. He did his very best to pay attention to the class and to answer every question he was asked, it was just that Mizuki was the one recording the student's answers as right or wrong, and it happened when Mizuki had to wake Kiba from his usual nap, that Naruto saw the sheet for today's questions and how he marked each student for their answers, his were all wrong, even though he had answered correctly.

This was the day he simply stopped caring about how the teachers felt about him, his answers or even if he was present. He marched right into the village library and began to read everything he could, when the librarian came over to him she told him, the library was forbidden for things like him. Naruto's eyes were not of a child, they had an almost feral look to them. "You listen to me, cause I don't plan to repeat this to you. You have five seconds to get the hell away from me, or I will beat you till you are unconscious, drag you by your hair to the Hokage's office, and then I will do everything in my power to get you fired, and cleaning toilets in the village hospital for the rest of your miserable life. I don't care if your family is hurt by your loss in income, I don't care if you are hurt because of me dragging you there. Now get the hell away from me or face the consequences."

This was not a very smart librarian it seems because she called him everything that was clearly forbidden in the law the 3rd made soon after his birth. Naruto simply put back the scrolls as he began to count to five. The librarian was thinking that she had own, but as he finished the counting, he grabbed the chair and with a swift and power swing he hit the librarian across her face, and when she was on the ground he beat her head with it till the chair broke.

The other librarians could hardly believe that a kid was either willing or able to do that. Then he took hold of her long hair and began to drag her towards the elevator. Half way to the elevator she woke up, which made Naruto give her a kick to he jaw. And he continued to drag her to the Hokage's office. The secretary just opened the door and stepped away from the eight year old dragging the unconscious body of the librarian.

"I told you, I told you this would happen. This was just as I expected. The librarian pretty much wiped her rear end with one of your laws, and was trying to prevent me from reading the scrolls in the library." Hiruzen asked which laws was he taking about. Naruto told him the one that was considered an S rank secret to violate.

Hiruzen walked over to the librarian and used a water jutsu to wake her up. "Hokage, I would like to place charges against that thing, for destruction of village property, assault and battery and attempted murder on my person. That thing should be in prison for the rest of his worthless life." Hiruzen just let the woman say everything she wanted. "Did you call him a demon? Did you try to stop him from using the materials in the library?" The woman knew she could not lie, so she said yes to both.

"Well you should know I been watching Naruto since he arrived in the academy. I know exactly what you told him, and sorry Naruto this woman will not be cleaning toilets for the rest of her life." The woman was smiling as she saw the angry look on Naruto's face. She must have felt rather happy since the smile was not possible for her to hide. "Instead, her fate will be decided by me. You are too merciful for your own good, Naruto."

Hiruzen called for one of the ANBU guarding him. "ANBU take his own and prepare her for a public execution, I want her dead and buried by the end of today." The ANBU walked over to the now scared woman, she demanded to know why she was going to die, the worthless demon brat is the one that should die. "You revealed an S Rank Secret and violated a law that clearly states that if you call Naruto a demon you will die, in a public execution."

The woman left screaming and kicking that it was not fair, that it was the demon brat that should die. "You knew I was watching you, and you knew that I would listen to you say those things to her. Why would you have her clean toilets, instead of the punishment you knew she deserved." Naruto looked at him and told him that sometimes death was not a punishment, that living in shame of cleaning toilets for the rest of her life would be a punishment for someone that felt as high and mighty like her."

Clearly Naruto was going back to the library and he was going back to read, so Hiruzen stopped him and told him he do him a favor and instead he could go to he room next to his office and use his personal library instead. Clearly someone did not understand that if a kid found a scroll with the word forbidden on it, the kid would do everything he could to actually read it, and that includes dragging a few chairs to reach it.

One his first day in the academy, he should have not even access to his chakra, but with the way he used that chair he clearly did. Naruto while the Hokage wondered what he would do began to read the first jutsu that was on the scroll. The infamous shadow clone jutsu. He read everything he could about the different zodiac hand signs before the now soon to be dead librarian tried to kick him out.

He read the reason to why the shadow clone was considered dangerous, that is when Kurama told him that the concern did not apply to someone like them. He began to do the hand signs and sure enough 3 shadow clones appeared and he told them to take a scroll and start reading. He continued to read about the other things in the scroll, and the clones picked up different scrolls to read.

By the end of the afternoon the clones had read something that he wished they never found. He marched right up to the old man, and asked him why he had something as perverse in his personal library. He even held the book, or what he called a badly written piece of smut.

"My bad, totally forgot that you were going to read things in the library, but it did stop you from reading any more of the forbidden scroll didn't it?" Naruto told him that he finished that scroll by the time his shadow clone found the disgusting book in the first place. "Let me get this straight, you sent shadow clones to read other things in my personal library while you kept reading the forbidden scroll?"

Naruto told him it was pretty much useless to try to keep it hidden, he knew of the beast, the seal and even how to break the seal, he didn't have the key, since it appears to be in the stomach of a very old toad, and he had no desire to open the seal as of right that moment. "How about the gravity seal?" Naruto told him he should read the fine print under that seal, forbidden for use by people less than 10 years of age.

"But you know what it does?" Naruto told him increases the gravity on the one using it by the number of times the level of the seal was. That a level five seal, would increase the force of gravity on that person five times. Minato Namikaze used it as a training method, but the damage to the bone structure made it dangerous past level 10.

"So you pretty much know everything in it? What did you think about the scroll?" Naruto sat down in a nearby chair. Began to tell him what he thought about the scroll. "Poorly organized, the handwriting is no better than chicken scratches. The language is in so much jargon it would take some real need to decipher, and even if you did decipher it would take years to actually put into practice. The piece of smut is easier to read."

"Which was all intentional to make stealing the forbidden jutsu and knowledge within as difficult as possible. If it was organized better, easier to read and with clear detailed wording of what was written, anyone could steal and and steal all that information. The book you keep calling smut was written by my student for the purpose of entertainment. The forbidden scroll was written to secure dangerous information."

"So how many shadow clones did you manage to make?" Naruto looked disappointed when he told him only three. "Well keep at it, that jutsu will help you learn so much faster than you can possibly believe right now." Naruto knew of the memory feature, but chose not to say anything about it.

"So each morning you will send to my library three shadow clones, and while you are methodically and intentionally graded unfairly by Mizuki, your clones will read anything in the library they can get their hands on. Don't worry I will lock away the rest of my Icha Icha collection, at least until you actually ask for it. "I would sooner french kiss a snake that do that." Hiruzen told him to be careful of what he says or he might end up doing that.

Naruto reached his apartment and sure enough on his walls were the same horrible smelling graffiti. Now with his shadow clones he got done cleaning his walls that much faster, but that did not mean he was free from the memory of the smell. With that dinner was shot straight to hell. He decided to take a bath, and fell asleep.

The following morning he did as he was told, he left three shadow clones in the private library of the Hokage, and went to his class. Lectures on materials his shadow clones has actually read about the day before. It was simply sit there pretend to listen and wait to answer a question when asked, he gave the textbook answer, and Mizuki marked it wrong yet again. For practical training he had perfect accuracy with kunai and shuriken. Taijutsu he beat Rock Lee like it was a walk in the park, he heard that the lesson was over and sat down on a nearby swing, as his shadow clones dispelled and he got the memories of what they read.

He walked to the village library and no one, and I mean no one even looked at him in the eye. He took as may books, scrolls and other materials he could carry to a nearby private reading room, made three more shadow clones and they began to read everything they could carry. Sometimes the clone would exit the room for some supplementary materials.

He went home, had his clones clean the walls and had some ramen and went to sleep. This was the routine for six years, six years where he had to learn everything alone, six years of being graded unfairly and passing only because of his practical scores, and six years of learning from a demanding fox that simply would not let him sleep without a lecture or teaching him something.

At age 10 he had started to use the gravity seal, he was currently at level five, and his chakra reserves were pretty close to Chuunin. Thanks to the transformation jutsu, he did not need to hide in the private reading rooms anymore, and with all his chakra control practice he did at home, he was now able to make 10 shadow clones, this made studying at the libraries so much easier.

But today was the last day, the final exams and knowing that Mizuki would do anything to fail him, he got a written persmission form the Hokage that he could use the shadow clone jutsu instead of the academy version of the jutsu. This pretty much put a damper on Mizuki's mood. He took his seat, and answered his written test, did his shadow clone during the jutsu part of the test and beat Sasuke during the practical segment of the test.

Mizuki knew that his plan to get the forbidden scroll was pretty much ruined. So he flat out walked over to Naruto, "Naruto, how would you like to make a ton of money, really easy?" Naruto pretended that he was all for easy money, that he could even improve from his lousy broken down apartment. "Well it's really easy, you just need to steal the forbidden scroll from the Hokage's library. It should be a piece of cake for you, you can walk in there whenever you want. Just take a regular large storage scroll, paint it to look like the forbidden scroll, and replace it for the real one."

Naruto was nodding his head as he heard. "Then meet me by this cabin, and I will give you more money that you will spend in your lifetime." He agreed to Mizuki's proposal and did get a large storage scroll, he knew Mizuki was watching him. He however could not watch inside the library and he did paint the outside to look like the forbidden scroll. But he actually made the scroll into a huge explosive tag. Good thing he learned to make those from the books he read.

He ran towards the cabin, and Hiruzen followed along with the ploy. When he told the ninja of the village to find Naruto and bring back the scroll he knew that Iruka would be the one to find him, he was actually the only teacher that actually cared about him. Having lived similar pain he understood Naruto perfectly.

He got there as Naruto gave him the forbidden scroll, "Naruto don't give him the scroll." Mizuki was about to tell Naruto he should that he owed the village nothing, and was about to tell him the reason why everyone hates him, and why he should come with him, and leave the village. "Nah, I wouldn't be able to get my revenge if I did. As to why they hate me, that doesn't matter. Dead people can go on to hate my guts in hell for all I care, take the scroll and beat it."

Mizuki was actually smiling as he took the scroll, he couldn't believe that it would be that easy. But as he jumped on the nearby tree branch. "Naruto, I know this village has treated you wrongly, but why did you give the forbidden scroll to Mizuki, you know you will be blamed for that right?" Naruto did a hand sign and he smiled. "I didn't give him anything like the forbidden scroll. He just took with him, my special explosive tag."

"Your special what!?" Mizuki was heard saying as the supposed Forbidden Scroll blew up and Mizuki came raining down in chunks from that tree branch. "What is it Iruka? We are ninja deception is our very best friend, you should really look beneath the underneath you know."

Naruto and Iruka walked to the smiling face of Hiruzen Sarutobi. "So Mizuki is dead, and you prevented the theft of one of our most priced scrolls." Naruto walked away yawning, "Yea, yea, all nice and all, but I need to sleep and get up early, graduation is tomorrow,and I don't want to fall asleep during your whole speech about our future as genin."


	3. Chapter 3

"This is a fan fiction, I do not own Naruto in any from being anime, games or published format."

Naruto honestly did try to get to sleep early to listen to the Hokage's speech, but he had a few problems that made that impossible. First, his neighbors were not what you call considerate in more days, but that day they flat out were even worse than usual. The threw rocks through one of the few intact windows in his apartment. The stone ricochet off the wall and broke his very last bottle of his favorite juice.

This was not going to end up well for them, he made five shadow clones and simply told them to find the punks who through the rock and beat their skulls in. The clones did just that. And they even got a nice thank you gift from a local booze hound, he wasn't able to sleep because of their racket, so with them unconscious and severely beaten. They wouldn't do this sort of thing in a hurry.

The second problem came when one of the clones drank the entire bottle from a dare of another clone. This made the other three clones drag the one that made the dare and the one that was drunk home. Which in turn made a racket at his apartment. So Naruto gave each a hard punch to dispel them. Nothing like remembering drinking the most foul stuff he ever had, and seeing himself hit himself.

The third problem was the one that finally ruined his sleep. For some reason Kyuubi really hated and I mean really hated Hiruzen Sarutobi. So in order for Naruto not to do the honorable thing and respect the old man, he made him stay up all night, listening to his lectures on the other tail beasts, where they came from, even stuff about the sage of the six paths. You would think that hearing someone give a few history lectures, you be out like a light, but not Kyuubi. He actually told it with such passion that Naruto could hardly close his eyes, so he got no sleep.

In the morning he had to skip his entire breakfast, and run as fast as he could to the academy, he simply overslept. It didn't help that he had a huge hangover that he could not remember why he was having a hangover in the first place. When he arrived Iruka flat out asked him why was he so late. He didn't know why he said it but he said something that made everyone grown when they heard it. He simply told Iruka that he simply was lost on the path of life, and could not find the way to correct it.

"Naruto are you drunk? on any medication I should know about?" He told him that his roommate decided to do something rather loud, and he could not get any sleep. Iruka finally understood what he was talking about. "Well you missed the Hokage's entire speech, but the good news is that you haven't missed the team placements and the title award for achievements and merits. So find a seat and we can get started."

He walked towards a seat and saw that Sakura was walking towards him. "Look, banshee you hate me, I don't like you, do me a favor and sit as far away from me as possible, and I will not have to beat your head like a drum. And if you are wondering where the Emo is he is three rows ahead of me." Sakura told him that was where she was headed anyways. She wouldn't want to be close to him to save her own life. Naruto simply said that he felt the same way.

Iruka began to read about the achievements of the students, and Sasuke was sure that he was going to be rookie of the year, apparently he forgot the beatings he got from Naruto during practical exercises. "So the Rookie of the year is: Naruto Uzumaki, and our Dead Last of the class : Kiba Inuzuka. Traditionally we would place both Kiba and Naruto in a team, but this year we are breaking the mold. So you can stop scowling Naruto, Kiba is not going to be your teammate. He, Sasuke Uchiha and Rock Lee are going to be on team seven, lead by Kakashi Hakate."

Lee was very happy about being placed with such a youthful team. Naruto just waited to hear about his team, and there it was. his team was Hinata Hyuuga, a guy named Sai and himself and their teacher was Anko Mitarashi. He had no complaints, at least his team leader was not going to make things boring. "Now do you have any problems with your team, Naruto?" Iruka clearly asking out of some personal concern.

"You mean besides the fact that I got a guy who wasn't even in my class, a girl that is so shy that she faints every time I even try to said hello. No the only thing I hoping is that our teachers fixes Hinata's shyness problem fast, or our team might as well be given a permanent room at the hospital." Anko was just walking into the classroom as she heard what Naruto finish saying. She was smiling when she saw he too had the same idea as she did.

"We can talk about that on our way to our training field and that is number 64 if you are wondering. Come one get up, Sai is probably drawing pictures of grass our of sheer boredom." Hinata and Naruto got up and followed her. "So our training ground is the forest of death?" Sai could hardly believe they were headed to a place most people try to avoid.

Hinata looked she had been sentenced to death, Sai went along and did not say a word, Naruto was acting like he was going to the happiest, most fun place ever. During his time in the academy he sometimes camped out in the forest, while others had sent time with their families, holidays, vacations, any time he did not attend the academy or had to wake up early the next day.

Anko was watching Naruto and couldn't believe that he was simply that happy. Most people consider going to the forest of Death a punishment. When they finally got to the forest she seem to want to do something. "Naruto is there something you want to say?" Naruto smiled walked over to the forest and simply looked at it, "Be it ever so humble, there is no place like home."

"Hey, Sai is it just me or is Naruto acting like he wants to put up a sign on one of those trees that reads (Home, sweet Home)" Anko actually told her their was such a sign and he did place it there a little over five years ago. "Well let's get introductions done. I am Anko Mitrarashi, I like to torture criminals and dango. I hate sexist creeps and Orochimaru. My dream is to become strong enough to kill Orochimaru and find a person to marry and form a family."

"My name is Hinata, I like my family and my plushy collection. I dislike discrimination and bullies, My dream is to marry a strong man, and to do away with the bird cage seal." She then looked at Sai, "My name is Sai, I like training and painting, I dislike anything that would harm Konoha. My dream is to become ANBU Commander."

Everyone waited for Naruto, and he did not say a thing, "Oy, Blondie sometime this century would be nice?" Naruto glared at her. "I didn't think I needed to introduce myself. Everyone pretty much knows who I am, or at least they think they do. But Fine, you want an introduction, you will get an introduction."

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, I don't think you care what I like, I don't have a year for you to finish your list on why you hate me. My dreams well you probably want to know so you can crush them to dust, so I will not tell you." Hinata and Sai had the unmistakable look of we only got his name. Anko went right next to him, and punched him hard on the top of his head. "Are you sure it's Uzumaki and not Hakate? Give me a proper introduction and stick your emotional garbage with the rest of your garbage."

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, I like foxes, wolves, and training. I dislike most of the idiots that hate me for something I couldn't even help being. My dream is to find woman that can love me and form a happy? " Anko told him that she was, maybe she might even find a nice lady for him to woe and romance. "But how do you feel about dogs?" Naruto told her he was fine with them, even played with some when he was younger, but there was someone he knew hated dogs with a passion.

Anko nodded her head and understood what he was talking about. "Of course he does." Anko walked up to them, and sat down looking straight at them, "Well kids the test for my team is a little different than most. Mine is very simple, you see this forest? well you just have to survive for one week with nothing but the clothes on your back. If you can survive that, then you should have no problem with my training, so without further ado, had over all your weapons, scrolls, and other supplies."

Hinata of course wanted to know how would they survive without anything but their clothes. They needed shelter, food, water and something to use to defend themselves. Anko told her that everything they would ever need was in the forest, food, shelter, water, and even weapons if you knew how to get by. That was the point of the test, to see if they had the skills needed to survive.

"So we just have to camp out for a week? that's it? Anko I know you don't hear this often, but thank you, thank you so much, this week is going to be so much fun." Naruto was clearly the only one who was happy about their situation. "Don't mention it kid, I am glad you feel that way." Anko left them and so their week started.

"Well I don't know about you two, but I need something to eat, gather some water and get to my camp site before the night." Sai was the first to ask where was his camp site, Naruto told him the it us on a few tree branches that grew close together a few hundred feet off the ground. "I am no idiot, there is no way I am sleeping on the ground, and be easy prey to something that lives here."

"But Naruto what are we supposed to do? I can't walk up a tree. Sai I don't know if he can. So how are we going to survive for an entire week?" Naruto told Sai that there was a stream about 20 feet from their current location, they were going to need to find some large animals and use some of their skin to make water tight bags, He told Hinata to use her eyes and locate the animals he described. Naruto took a piece of rock and made some makeshift spears.

"But are we going to kill some poor animal?" Naruto told her that it was them or us. Sai took one of the spears and he and Naruto got ready to pounce. Ones the animal was near both Naruto and Sai jumped on it, managed to kill three pretty good size animals, Naruto's finger nails seemed to grow a bit longer and he used his sharp nails to cut the skin of the animals and made several pouches, one was for the meat, and the last three where for the water.

Hey each took a pouch and followed Naruto to the stream, and when Sai asked if they could eat the fish that were seeming, he only said that if he had a death wish, sure he could eat those fish. "What do you mean, Naruto?" He told Hinata the fish has a very strong poison as a natural defense. "This is one of the things Anko told us we could use as a weapon."

Naruto told them they would need to sleep on shifts and keep an eye on the two that were sleeping, at least till Hinata and Sai could do the tree walking exercise to reach his camp site. Beneath that camp site was a large opening almost as if the tree had made a cave with it's roots. So they started the tree walking exercise after Naruto got done explaining how to do it and showed them how.

It took Sai two days to reach the camp site up on the tree, and Hinata took 4 days. So the last three days were actually pretty fun. They got used to working together, and even sort of liked Naruto's cooking, The forest of death was a veritable haven of items, food and supplies if you knew where to look. As the last day arrived Hinata was pretty much over her shyness and what as cold and calculating as Naruto and Sai. Sai manages to open up a little with them, and managed to even tell a bad joke or two.

Naruto relaxed and was able to lower his guard a little bit. The entire experience had been a good way of building trust, and emotional bonding. There team work was a necessary if they wanted to survive. Anko finally showed up at the gates and called for them with a flare. The three jumped from branch to branch and reached her positions fast.

"So why do you think I had you do this?" Sai asked is it wasn't just a plain excuse to let them have some fun? Naruto could only laugh, "I guess I really am a bad influence on you Sai, I guess I really rubbed off on you." Hinata told her for teamwork and to learn the harsh truth about life as a ninja. "As expected that is the right answer. Nice going with the bags Naruto, and the tree walking exercise. I have to say that your nails growing out like that was a surprise." Naruto smiled at Anko, "A friend gave me a little help."

"So we got Hinata over her shyness and unwillingness to injure someone or something. We got you to learn some teamwork, and you managed to do that tree walking exercise pretty good. So I can say that we are now officially team 64. congratulations team, you pass."


	4. Chapter 4

"This is a fan fiction, I do not own Naruto in any from being anime, games or published format."

"There is no way I am wasting over three months doing chores. I swear that is a waste of time, and I told you about that." The Hokage told him it was his decision not to change a system that already worked, at the very least he did not get placed on a squad based on the traditional model. He told Naruto he should be grateful. "And if I spend several months doing chores, I would hide your smut, because I am liable to span and burn them all to ash."

Well seeing that his private collection of Icha Icha was in danger, "Well how about I have you do 10 of those missions per day. You have your shadow clones, after all. When you complete say 100 D rank missions, then I will give you your first C rank." Naruto told him to make it 70 and he had a deal. And so it was agreed that Naruto would do 70 D rank missions.

As the team walked out he began to ask Naruto how much did the Hokage love his Icha Icha to be do something like that. "Well he loves it so much he is willing to negotiate and compromise on how many D ranks mission we have to do, and allowed the used of the shadow clones. I wouldn't be surprise he treats that smutty books like they were a national treasure."

Anko could not help but to laugh, "Say would you like to meet someone I think you will like." Naruto was pretty much free, since he sent his shadow clones to deal with the D rank missions. They walked towards the village's veterinarian clinic. "Great, an Inuzuka runs this place. How is me getting called a worthless waste of space, and other insults about how worthless I am, constituted me meeting some one nice?"

Anko told him not to generalize, the Inuzuka that they were going to meet was actually very nice person, unlike Kiba or Sakura. As soon as they were inside, Naruto finished telling Anko that Kiba and Sakura loved putting him down so much, "They are both mean, disrespectful and borderline cruel. They should elope, the two freaks are perfect for each other." Hana had to laugh, and surprisingly so did the three huskies with her. "Finally, someone actually said it."

"Hana, sorry about that, I think Naruto should apologize." Hana told Anko that he did not need to apologize for something that was completely obvious and true. Naruto walked over to Hana, began to look at her face, her body even her posture. "I think Kiba needs glasses." That comment brought Hana to look directly at him and ask why?. Naruto remember someone asking Kiba about his family and every single time they asked, and on every year he would tell the same thing.

"I see a very agile, beautiful and proud woman. I don't even see how Kiba could say something like that every time anyone asked him about his family." Anko now was worried. "So what exactly does his say about his family?" Naruto told him that Kiba would say that his old hag of a sister, had a face like a saint bernard's rear end. "How many times did he actually say that?" Naruto smiled at her and told her over 200 give or take.

"Naruto are you trying to destroy Kiba's family?" Naruto simply told Anko he answered the questions with the whole truth and nothing but the truth. So Anko asked him a question to and demanded that he do the same for her question. "So having looked at Hana what do you really think of her body?" Naruto had to seriously examine her face and body which made Hana blush at least three shades of red.

"Her hair smells, nice and is silky, beautiful eyebrows and eyes, has the most tender and soft looking lips I have ever seen. Her neck is strong, yet soft, her breasts are not overly big or too small, just he size of my palm. The shape when she leans creates a valley that simply draws anyones attention. Her skin I imagine is as soft as silk, and has a rather attractive almost heart shaped to her hips and legs. All in all I would say she would make most models green with envy."

Anko asked her how she looked to him at this moment, "Like my mother would look if I managed to do something that really embarrassed the living hell out of her, in public." Naruto was told that sometimes the correct answer was that she was pretty, or attractive, event though it was not the whole truth. "Well besides flirting with me, What brings you my office." Anko told her that she was perfect to actually supply Naruto with some more reading materials. She told her that he got done with both libraries, and the village library would not lt him get to the higher rank materials till he was actually that rank.

"Hold on a minute, I happen to know there are over a 1,000 books, scrolls and manuscripts in the genin section of the library. "1,254 if you don't count the smut the perverted student of the Hokage wrote." Hana was surprised that Icha Icha copies were at the library and angry that it was accesible to genin. Naruto told her it was down by the basement, right next to the door to the women's bathroom. There had been a peep hole in the male side, but he used a fire jutsu to burn the hole shut.

"Well I only got books about medicine and anatomy. I am do treat animals, but I can treat a human in case of emergency." Anko decided to change subjects, and also asked her if he found her attractive, which made Hana blush again. "You bet, I do. Smart, beautiful and kind. It's a small wonder she is even single. If I was considered an adult. I would be down here asking her out on a date, every chance I got. But let's face it, no way a woman like her is ever going to go out with me. Sakura spent years telling me how nobody would ever go out on a date, with a freak like me."

"Note to self: Kick Kiba's teeth in, and Forbid entry to my office to the lousy pink banshee. End of Note" Anko looked at Hana and asked why she was whispering what she just said. "Oh, no reason. So Naruto are you free say this Saturday at 5 p.m?" Naruto told her that he only needed to clean the graffiti of his wall, but other than that he was free. "Ok, see you at your apartment at 4 p.m. Maybe I can help you clean those walls."

Anko decided to tease her, "Sound like you just asked him out on a date." Hana smiled and went to her own bookshelf and got him some really thick books about more precise information of pressure points and anatomy and physiology. As the pair left she told Anko that was exactly what she was doing. Gave Naruto a kiss on the cheek and told him that she was actually looking forward to the date.

Anko was fairly amused by the speed that it take him to actually get a date, with the brother of the guy that spent years insulting him. "I guess being honest sometimes has benefits. I have seen hundreds of guys ask her out, and end up getting a door shut on their faces, but she actually asked you out." Naruto told her that once she saw how she lived any possibility for a second date would do down the gutter. "Come on Naruto don't you think that is a little pessimistic."

He told her that she was saying that because she actually never been in his so called apartment. When she told him that she would want to see it, to prove him wrong, he merely told her to follow him then, cause that was the place he was going, only told her not to eat anything before he got there. When they reached the broken piece of wood that was his door, she understood why he felt like he did.

"What is this awful smell, and where is it coming from?" Naruto told her that if it was bad for her it was at least a thousand times worse for him. He walked towards his living room, and she saw messages of pure hatred, telling him to die, to go to hell, to eat the most rotten things anyone could mention and to take a bath in acid and be sent to the sewers where he belongs.

"But where is this smell?" He told her the graffiti must be fresh then, he told her whoever did this or whoever they were, they used animal shit to write on his walls. "And this has been happening for years? Why didn't you tell anyone?" He told her that the first time they wrote with a deep yellow paint, when he mentioned it and the Hokage tried to do something about it, the people switching to using what they was now on his walls.

"If I tell him about this, what's next? blood or plain acid? I learned that I can use Wind, Lightning, Fire and Water jutsu. I have spent years training on them, so I gotten pretty good at washing and drying my walls. It simply reminds me, that this village might be home to a lot of people, but it will never be a home to me. I am like my neighbor, he is in a prison, and so am I."

Anko asked him if he had anything to eat, he told her that he had some boxes of instant Ramen, and a bottle of sake that a local yakuza gave him for his birthday. He didn't touch it, since he was certain that someone paid him to give him a bottle that had been injected with the most foul poison known to their village. "So how many times have people actually tried to kill you?" Naruto sat down and looked at the ceiling. "So many that I have lost count. And yes I could kill the fools that try to kill me, but if I do then their treatment of me becomes justified, because then I would truly be the monster that they think I am."

"Naruto I am treated as a monster too, do you know why I don't worry about what they think of me? Because if you treat a person as a monster, they eventually become one. Don't hold back any longer Naruto Uzumaki. They think you are a demon, then treat them as a demon would. If they try to kill you, it is only polite, to try and give them the same favor after all."

"Plus, try to eat something better than this crude. I happen to know of a pretty good restaurant owned by a former yakuza boss. He likes colorful people, and we are anything but ordinary. Come on let me take you, you are going to love this joint." Naruto walked out of his apartment and tied the door shut. They walked down the grimiest alley that Naruto had ever seen. But he followed his teacher.

She saw a brick wall that simply looked out of place, she hit the wall on the four corners and last at the center, the wall moved aside and let her enter. There was a big sign over the entrance, Welcome to the demon's kitchen, normal people not welcomed. She stepped and she saw many people dressed in the most horrible clothing ever. They were pretty friendly to Anko since she was a regular.

"Yoshi, I brought a new client to your joint. Why don't you get out of there and come and see who I brought?" An old man pushed a button and a left was heard. The sounds of a wheelchair where heard. "So, Anko decided to bring me a customer. Isn't that nice. Let me have a look at you." The old man looked almost like someone's grandfather. "So this is the yakuza officer you told me about?"

"Damn it, Anko. How many times I keep telling you. I am a retired Ninja, I been in this damn wheelchair since the second Shinobi World War. I swear if you keep this up, I am going to tell my nephew about it." This was when Naruto asked him who was his nephew, "Why Ibiki Morito, who else." Naruto told him his name. "Yep, you can eat hear, if someone is not normal it's the demon of konoha. You are most welcome to eat at my establishment."

"What do you recommend Yoshi?" Yoshi laughed and looked very happy to be asked. "On the soul soup is pretty good, and the human liver and cursed onions are on special, it comes with styx tea. Only 20 for the livers and 30 for the soup. So Demon what will you have?" Naruto smiled " I think I will have the soup that sounds fun, and some of that tea."

Have a seat, there is a free seat in the table next to Bane. So everyone has a nickname, what is your Anko?" She sat down next to the guy that looked like a wrestler, and he was a wrestler in the underground wrestling circuit, nicest guy you ever met. He decided to answer Naruto's question. "Jormungand, You really must like this demon to bring him here. I would be surprised that this was a date?"

"Bane I would not joke about that, He had a hot date with Fenrir, you wouldn't want to get on her bad side, now would you?" Yoshi sent his order with his own daughter, pretty but a little on the pale side. "Here is your order, Demon. That will be 35 ryo." Naruto paid 50. When she asked why, he mentioned that it was a tip. "Me, oh my, You sure are nice."

"Well, you know better than to be misguided by appearances don't you Hel?" The waitress told him that if Fenrir didn't like him, that she got dips on him next time. Anko began to laugh, "Oh, no you don't Hel, get in line like the rest of us."

The soul soup was actually a very dark and creamy mushroom soup and had pieces of roughly cut vegetables. The tea was a very sweet cinnamon tea, he used sticks of cinnamon and left them in when he served the tea. "Some of the best damn soup I had in my entire life. I might decide to come often." Yoshi told him that he could do that, but remember the rule. No so called normal people allowed, if they dared they go into the pan. One of the guys next to Bane told him, that no so called normal person would even find the place.

"So can I bring Fenrir for my date with her or what?" Yoshi told him that he had no problem with his date, Hel might but he had another waitress that could take care of their orders. He thanked the owner for the great food and tea, and told Bane that he would take him up on his offer to let him teach him Muay Thai. "Oh, hell if he learns that I am going to start feeling sorry for the next moron than fights him."

The actual date was wonderful, Hel didn't like how happy Hana was but the again Yoshi pretty much told her, that if she messed up Demon's date, he was not going to give her money for her manga for three solid years, Hana never actually had as much fun dating anyone. When Hel actually asked her who owned the guy that she was dating, she pretty much smiled and told her. "Me, but he doesn't know that. I am giving him time to for him to figure it out, nice aren't I?"

Bane turned out to be real blessing, he picked up the fighting style rather quickly and even made a few moves of his own. The two became good friends and sometimes kid with him that he learned in days what took him years of practice. "You have your techniques and I got an army of students working for me. But thanks for those lessons, I will put them to good use."

Thanks to that places cooking, and being able to eat some healthy food. He started to really build up, some serious muscles. He had a six pack that looked like he could crack walnuts with. After a long week, the D rank missions were over and the team had used shadow clones for all of them, so they spent most of the time either training, taking care of some personal problems, or learning from Anko or books and scrolls.

The Hokage could hardly believe how much team 64 had improved. Hana was practically on could nine most of the time. Tsume had asked her many times what made her change her mood so much? She just told her mother that she had some of the best dates in her life, and couldn't be happier. "So when are you going to bring him home, so he can meet the family?" Hana looked at her mother, "And scare him off like all the other, hell no. I will enjoy him a little more before that moron brother of mine, ruins yet another one of my chances to find a husband."


	5. Chapter 5

"This is a fan fiction, I do not own Naruto in any from being anime, games or published format."

Naruto was not what one would call typical, and in that restaurant he was doing right normal. Yoshi always cooked the best food he could pay for, Hel was funny and fun to talk to. Bane was always up for a spar and the other colorful regulars were if anything tired, tired of being treated as freaks by the people, so they found a place where they could be something Konoha or the other villages never quite expected of them, be civilized.

Hana and Naruto were pretty much considered by them a very typical, happy couple. Hel considered her the bitch that stole her chance of being with the most decent guy she found so far. But she had to be polite, you are not rude to a woman, that has three huskies that could tear you limb from limb, and is not unwilling to let them do that.

The day finally came and for a brief moment, Naruto felt like the Hokage was playing a prank on him. Here he was going to take his first C rank mission, and it was to guard some worthless, drunken loser. The guy was so drunk he could barely walk straight. "Hokage, let me get this straight, so I don't make any mistakes. Anko, and my fellow ninja are tasked with keeping that thing alive, until he finishes his so call bridge? Is that right?"

"That would be correct, Naruto." Naruto asked if he could make it at least a B rank mission, or offer a little more money, for compensation of having to smell his breath. "You think I am happy being told my life depends on a woman who makes most strippers look like they are dressed as nuns, a pale faced brat that doesn't seem to care about anything, a girl with the eyes of a blind man, and a punk who looks like he has done more drugs than a city and has an overinflated ego."

Naruto began to laugh, this was clearly not a good sign by the way his team reacted. He was gone in a flash and standing behind Tazuna. "Or I could simply drive his kunai here through your right kidney, shut that big mouth of your for good." Tazuna clearly saw the danger, he told him that would put Wave and his town on a path to ruin. "Like I care, your town and country have are not our allies, what should I care for a bunch of idiots, that would one day betray our village."

Anko clearly saw that he really wanted to kill him, "Because he is our client, and if you do kill him you will fail your first mission. Do you like failure, Naruto?" Naruto put his kunai away. Naruto told him to keep his insults and he might keep his life as well. Tazuna was about to ask what was the blond's major malfunction. "Ok, team pack for at least one month, and meet me by the gates."

"Where are you going Naruto?" Naruto told her he was already packed, he was simply going to say good bye to his girlfriend. Hinata was surprised to hear that Naruto had a girlfriend. When he left Hinata pretty much asked her over and over again who she was, as the team waited for Naruto get back. "She is Hana Inazuka and she is Kiba's sister."

Anko told him he should used a handkerchief, he had lipstick all over his face. He did and told Anko that Hana was particularly happy that he was so considerate of her feelings. "So that is why you were so late, well a roll in the hay is a roll in the hay." Anko put a stop to her teasing when Naruto asked her is she wasn't the co-author of Icha Icha? "I wouldn't be doing this for a living if I was. It might be smut, but that smut sells."

They each went in a triangle formation with Naruto and Anko up front and Sai and Hinata guarding behind. Anko and Naruto talked about what he and Bane been doing lately. "I swear Naruto, most people avoid Bane, but you actually spar with him on the regular basis, what gives?" Naruto told her the man was articulate, intelligent and a decent fighter. "Naruto, for the tenth time I am not interested in him, be sure to tell him if he wants to date me, grow a pair and ask me himself, and stop asking you to try and convince me what a great catch he is."

Naruto told her he did try to do that, but then again if he found someone, and he was more hated than a cat in the dog pound. He saw no reason why she couldn't find someone to make her happy too. "Naruto do you remember the weather report for last week?" Naruto told her sunny, clear and record high temperatures." Anko and Naruto walked near the puddle. "Lightning style: Paralysis field jutsu." The two masked men where shocked and their jutsu was undone.

"It takes a real idiot not to realize that their enemy had spotted them." They tied them around a tree with their own chains. Naruto began to smack them both, and saying to them to wake like he was a parent waking up a child that overslept. "Ok, we have a situation here. From your headbands you are practically screaming rogue ninja, so here is the deal. You tell us what we everything you know, and you die quickly and painlessly, you don't say anything I slowly burn you idiots an inch at a time, till you tell me what I want to know.. Hell will seem paradise by the time I am done with you."

One of the two told him to go to hell. "Ok, we do things the fun way then." He used a fire jutsu and began to roast the feet off the one that talked. "I would talk if I were you, I really can't control him when he gets like this." Anko doing the good cop and Naruto doing the psycho cop by the looks of it. When he was up to his knees his brother told him that they were hired to kill the drunk they were guarding, that their boss was a crime boss that controlled the drunks village. "So please, stop hurting my baby brother, he is the only person I got in the world."

"Who is your boss, and don't try to tell me you are here on your own. You idiots can even do an ambush correctly." The one that was talking told them their boss was Zabuza Momochi. Next thing they knew Sai was saying that they were in some serious shit. "Zabuza was a swordsman of the mist, and earned the moniker of the demon of the mist. He specialized in the silent killing method." Anko ask Naruto who told him. "Yoshi let's me read a bingo book when he is making my lunch."

Now Anko was angry, "That bastard, he never even told me he had a current copy of the bingo book at all." Naruto told her it was on the menu. "So will untie us and set us free?" The masked man either considered them as dumb as they were or he hoped that since he answered their questions, they would let them go. "Oh, I will set you free alright." He made two shadow clones and those two used wind chakra to make a pair of wind swords, cut the heads of both brothers and the tree they were tied to.

Hinata asked why he killed them. "We can't afford to let them live and warn the enemy, no Tazuna mind telling us why you lied to the Hokage, before we do the same thing to you." You never saw a man become sober at such speed. "My country is poor, and the bastard controls our only means to trade. I am making a bridge so that we can trade with the mainland, and be free of his influence."

Naruto saw why this crook wanted the drunk dead. Naruto turned around and looked at his team. "Alright, team this mission is the classical definition of FUBAR. We have two choices, me and Anko can continue the mission while you and Sai go and get much needed reinforcements, or we continue that training I have for you and we continue the mission together." Sai told him that since the client lied they could drag him back to the Hokage, to explain.

"I hate failure when I got a chance to do things right, I am going even if I have to do this mission alone. I know Anko is not going to turn around and runaway. So you two decide what you want to do, risk it with us, or go get more people and tell the truth to the Hokage?" Hinata told him that if Anko was not going to runaway, well she was not going to shame her clan. Sai said that maybe against Zabuza he could watch Naruto actually fight.

"So stop pretending to beg you drunken liar, we are going it seems, so get up we need to put some distance between us and this place." Anko was clearly having fun. How long did the fun last is a good question to ask, but with Naruto around it was going to be a good time for a real long time. Now if only Hinata hadn't sent that reinforcement request via a shadow clone, it would have lasted longer.

"Well all side, got to kill some idiots, going to make a good amount of cash when I deliver there heads. All in all not a bad day so far. Now if only Zabuza would do something nice and stupid like appear real soon and threaten me or even told me that he was going to kill my team while I watch, now this would be a great day. The bounty on him could pretty much make me able to move out of that hellhole I call my home, and into a nice place for a change."

"Hana doesn't think of like that." Anko was clearly trying to say Hana liked his home. "She only says that because my apartment building lets dogs in." Considering how broken down and dilapidated the place is, a few dog turds were not that major of a deal. Some of the people, just called it supplies for writing on Naruto's walls. Even after he was now working to make the village safe and financially secure they still left him the same smelly, disgusting graffiti like always.

"Be careful what you wish for, brat. You might just get it." Tazuna could not have said anything that was more true. In came the sword flying at Anko and getting stuck on the tree. "A little bit over dramatic, don't you think so Zabuza?" Zabuza was clearly not expecting them to react like that. Someone must have told them he was coming, and pretty much ruined his entrance.

"Maybe, maybe not. So the snake mistress of Konoha, no wonder those two idiots are dead. Anko how about you let me kill the drunken loser, and I let you get back to your babysitting?" Naruto sent a massive wind style jutsu at the tree and Zabuza was not expecting that he fell down and the sword fell right on him. "Ok, let's get a few things straight. The one who killed those imbeciles was not Anko, it was me. I never had a baby sitter and the only one that could even be considered calls it being my roommate. So you pretty much managed to piss both of us off with that comment."

"So what I am going to do is go over there and beat your teeth in, and use your empty skull as my newest cup and drink some styx tea out of it." Naruto was clearly pissed, and I mean really holy mother of god have mercy on the moron pissed. "So the twins got killed by a good for nothing brat. Boy getting good help is really hard isn't it, Anko?"

He clearly didn't understand the danger he was in. Naruto sent 10 shadow clones and each used 5 very dangerous chakra chains against him. While he was busy dodging the chains, Naruto was doing a long sequences of hand signs and really fast. "Hinata do you have a clue what Naruto is doing?" Hinata told him something he really should not consider doing, if he wanted to collect the bounty on Zabuza.

From his last hand sign a stream of fire came out, and it took the shame of a massive dragon flying towards Zabuza, "You have got to be kidding me." The shadow clones used a wind jutsu from behind the fire jutsu and to push him directly on the path of the fire jutsu. It took a massive water jutsu to stop the fire jutsu, but it burned half of his body pretty badly.

Out of nowhere a senbon needle came flying and it hit him on the neck. "Thanks for the distraction, I been hunting him for weeks." The hunter jumped down and picked up the corpse and left as fast as he could. "Damn it, he got away." Naruto's comment pretty much made Hinata and Sai both confused. "A hunter ninja disposes of the body on sight, if he was real he would taken the proof of his kill, a body part that is easy to identify and burn the rest on the spot. That faker pretty much saved Zabuza's life."

"Well, Naruto at least the team will have a week or two to train and get ready for his next attack." Anko was clearly trying to make him feel better. "I know, Anko, it's just I had this lovely little house picked out. By the time we kill that idiot, that house is going to be sold in less than two weeks. It even had a very nice backyard for the huskies to play in. Damn."

"Naruto it's almost like you are planing to marry Hana. If you are planing when are you going to propose?" Naruto told her when he made Chuunin, he knew he would need the extra income. Hinata asked why, Sai began to sing the song, "Hana and Naruto sitting under a tree, k.i.s.s. i.n.g, first comes love, then marriage." Naruto put a stop to that by glaring at Sai. "Grow up, we learned why in our health class.."


	6. Chapter 6

"This is a fan fiction, I do not own Naruto in any from being anime, games or published format."

When they finally made it home to Tazuna's house Naruto met Tazuna's one and only daughter, Tsunami. She was friendly, kind and for so reason being more nervous about Naruto possibly being injured than her own father or the rest of his team. Anko however knew why. Tsunami much like herself hadn't had any male lover in years. So Anko had quite viciosly pop that dream and made Tsunami stop flirting with the blond ninja. She just told her that Naruto had a very possessive girlfriend waiting for her and that they were practically considering getting married.

That pretty much killed the intentions of finding a surrogate father for Inari, at least it would not be Naruto. Naruto was told that there was only two spare rooms, and so Hinata and Anko would have to share a room and Sai and Naruto the other. Naruto walked to his room and pretty much told Sai not to worry since he was not planning to sleep in the room at all. "Why not Naruto?" Naruto looked at him and smiled, "Cause I snore. You need your sleep and so do I."

Naruto told them that for the next two weeks they would be doing nothing except chakra control exercises. When asked why he reminded them that Zabuza Momochi was alive, and he was going to try and killed their client. Anko just asked him why not kill the guy who hired Zabuza in the first place. Before Naruto got out of the room he simply answered that it was not part of their agreed responsibilities. They're job was to keep Tazuna alive till the bridge was finished.

"What about his family?" Naruto simply asked the same question, "What about his family? Are they to be included into the people we must protect? I don't know. That would be clearly Anko's decision. If I had any power to decided at all. I would simply do ask Anko suggested, and killed Gato and most of his thugs. But clearly that is not the case." Naruto took them to a nice place where they could find a deep enough and big enough of a pound for the team's training.

Naruto pretty much went and told Hinata and Sai how to do the water walking exercise, and when they almost got it, he told them that they could pretty much keep doing that. Naruto left a shadow clone simply to keep an eye on them, don't want to be the guy returning to the village and having to explain why two of their team actually drowned. The original Naruto went as did his job, went and stood guard over the entire crew building the bridge.

At the end of the day he helped Tazuna walk home, since the man was pretty tired. As the team and Tazuna sat down he began asking questions about how was life as a ninja. Naruto evaded that question by asking what was for dinner instead. Tsunami told her it would be chicken soup, vegetables and plenty of rice. "Now all I need is some styx tea, and I would feel like I was home."

Inari not being either in the greatest of moods or the fact that he felt the extra people sitting at his table where just putting on airs decided to let his presence be know. Tsunami was about to introduce him, when he looked at the people that had kept his grandfather alive, but he looked at them as intruders. "You people are going to die, Gato is invincible. You pathetic morons will die, you grew up in a peaceful village you don't know our pain, you as simply pathetic, stupid and blind to see that your peaceful village made you weak. You never had to endure our pain, our misery. You should run back to your village with your tails between your legs."

Naruto was actually waiting for his dish of soup, and the bowl of ride when the kid came in and shouted all that garbage. "So you know pain? you know misery? Don't make me laugh. You are nothing but a crying, sobbing, pathetic spoiled brat. And may miss my lunch, but I will get you to open your eyes before this evening is done. And you will never talk to me like that again."

Inari took on his challenge and told him that he could prove nothing since he was right. "Ok, lets start with your life then, do you get beating for birthday presents? have you been poisoned, stabbed, electrocuted, burned, and left for dead? Have you had to dig through garbage to find food? Eaten something that was crawling with maggots because it was the only thing you could find edible?" Inari told him no and asked what was the point, there is no way anyone would be able to live through something like that.

"Ok, let talk about your family? Did you lose both your parents and the were blamed for their deaths for years? Did they ignore you while you needed medical treatment or even when you were feeling sad? Did your brother beat you to an inch of your life and dragged you by your broken leg, back to your home, so that other people could beat you up some more?" Inari told him he needed to stop asking stupid questions, family is there to support each other, his family cared about him. There was no way something like that could happen to someone.

"Then lets talk about your home, Is your door a pieces of would you nailed to a wall, using whatever you could to nail it? Do you have to wash every day your walls, because the people in your town wrote hate messages using pieces of dried animal shit? Did the people of your town brake everything you held dear to you, while you were looking for food?" Inari did not see the point of these questions, there was no way someone would be treated like that.

Naruto got up and was glaring at Inari. "I am someone that lived and lives like that. If I die they will more than likely name it a holiday, and celebrate my death and probably celebrate each year after as the happy day that I died. I ate things you wouldn't feed a dog. You think you know pain and misery, what you call pain I call heaven on earth, compared to my life. I wished for having a grandfather who provided for me, or a mother that would cook for me delicious food, and be there for me. What I got was people trying to kill me and a whole village that yearns for my death. So wake up brat, crying doesn't help, get off your ass and do something about it, or you will always be the spoiled cowardly brat that you are today."

Naruto walked out of the house, Tsunami and Tazuna were stunned. "There is no way that is true, please Anko tell me what we heard is all made up." Tsunami pleading to hear that it was not true, but Anko looked at her. "The truth is that was the sugar coated version of the truth. Naruto is too kind to tell a child what his life really is like. The last thing he told Inari, he probably told himself that a thousand times, so many times that I don't think he can cry ever again."

Inari looked at Naruto's team and could only ask if that was true, why didn't he leave? "Most of us call our village home, Naruto calls it his prison. To date there were only three people that have ever cared about him. The Hokage cares, but is forbidden to do anything kind for him, or the village would revolt into civil war. I can't do anything, because if I do, he will be hated even more. And last Hana just met him. I don't know why but they fell in love with each other so fast, but she can't do much for him, because he is as of yet not part of her clan."

"So you mean to tell me, that he has no parents and nobody wanted to adopt him." Anko told Inari that was not true, some people did want to adopt him. Inari smiled for a moment, until Anko finished telling that some people wanted to adopt him, so they could bring him home, and try to kill him in the comfort of their own home. Tazuna had enough, having lost his wife, his son in law and a lot of his friends, he knew loss very well. "I can only say that Naruto is wrong, that village is not a prison, it's hell on earth."

"So you see Inari, your life is what Naruto would wish for when he was alone. I suspected that he was training like he did, so that he would eventually run away, to escape his so called hell. But as I see him train his own fellow team members I realized that he is not running away, he is becoming strong enough, so that no matter what the village does to him or tries to do to him, will not matter at all. He will not run away and he will not surrender, he will be stronger than all the people that hate him combined."

Naruto fell asleep in a field of flowers. It was such a soft field, the grass was more soft that the bed he slept on as a child. The flowers smelled so nice, that they helped relax him and let him fall asleep.

Early next morning he was woke up by someone picking herbs. "You know I could have killed you while you slept. That is not very smart to sleep out in the open." Naruto sat up and looked at this person picking those herbs. "And you know there is something very disturbing about a man looking so good in a kimono, that he might even pass for a girl."

"So you figured it out, can I ask what gave me away?" Naruto asked him if the words morning wood have any meaning to him. Haku could not believe what he heard, until he looked down, and sure enough he indeed saw a bulge. "So how is Zabuza this morning?" Haku stepped away from him as he stood up. "He is doing fine, why would you care?"

"Not really care as much as I don't want something as needle placed in the wrong spot, to deprive me of the fun of fighting him again." Haku asked why he wouldn't simply abandon the drunken old bridge maker. For the same reason he did not abandon Zabuza, his honor would not let him. "Do you have someone precious to you? Someone that you would die to protect?" He told Haku he did have someone like that. "Well that is what Zabuza is to me as well. So when you try and kill him next, remember that you have to get through me first, and I will not show you any mercy."

"Well Haku be sure to get that guy, nice and healed, and don't forget to tell give him my regards." Haku accused him of being weird, being so sociable to his enemies. Naruto simply got up and walked up the nearby tree. "Somehow it just doesn't feel right, to be called weird, by a guy that looks as good as a woman in a kimono. Talk about having gender confusion. issues."

As Naruto walked towards the bridge he saw Tazuna and he was not looking that happy, he was doing right moody. "Morning, Naruto. Slept well?" He looked at the foreman, "Sure, had a really great night, how about you guys?" This made the other on the crew laugh. "You know the drill guys, I sit over there pretending to be bored out of my skill, and keep an eye on your boss, and you while you finished this thing."

He sat down and began his watch. "Naruto do you mind if I ask you a few questions?" He looked at Tazuna and nodded his head. "Why do you not tell the Daimyo of your country to do something about how you are treated?" Naruto told him that the leader of his country was concerned with the safety of a nation, not a punk. So he couldn't ask them to stop trying to kill him, since that would cause him to lose the support of the village, since the village would revolt.

"Is there anything about that place you like?" Naruto scratched his chin and told him there was a few things he like. "The forest of death is a fun place to camp out, love to go hunting there. There is this nice little restaurant operated by Yoshi and his daughter. But to me the real redeeming feature is Hana, god all mighty I do love that veterinarian. I wish she was here with me."

As it turns out the saying that people should be careful what they wish for, was indeed true. Hinata's Shadow Clone had managed to deliver the request for reinforcements, but the council was divided. 1/4 wanted to send reinforcements, but 3/4 wanted to do nothing, and maybe the demon brat could be killed by Zabuza. They even proposed building a monument to the man, if he succeeded.

Hana after she heard about what the council was doing, she packed her things, and she and her huskies left Konoha headed to where Naruto was. When asked why did the Hokage do nothing about it, the old man simply told them that he was planning to ask her to go anyways. When they were going to protest what he said, he also mentioned that the heiress of the Hyuga Clan was there too. That made the shouts end in a second.

"Akamiya, how long till we reach Naruto?" The husky looked at her as they continued traveling. "Dad is no weakling, mom. He can take care of himself. If he was a weakling you wouldn't have picked him in the first place." The other two huskies agreed. She looked at them in such a way that they stopped talking. "Doesn't mean I am ready to lose my mate, for a stupid lie."

As they group reached the water they tried to figure out how to cross it, swimming was out of the question. Sai had a feeling Hinata would send a Shadow Clone, so he too used one too keep an eye out for possible reinforcements. He was one of the most bored shadow clones ever. "So you are our reinforcements, well beggars can't be choosers. The boat is over this way. And no, Naruto is not dead. He is doing just fine and yes, so is the rest of the team. So let's go. Naruto should be on the bridge guarding the bridge crew."


	7. Chapter 7

"This is a fan fiction, I do not own Naruto in any from being anime, games or published format."

Hana could stand it no longer, she simply walked over the water and ran up the side of one of the completed supports for the bridge, and so did her dogs. The were right behind her and when they got to the top. They saw Naruto looking rather bored. The next thing they saw was that Naruto sensed someone was looking at him. So he was ready to attack. "Well, let's go say hi to daddy." The three huskies ran towards Naruto tackled him to the ground and began to lick his face.

Well that took Hana by surprise, but she calmly walked over to her mate, being licked by the triplets. "Now if you kids are here, it must mean Hana is nearby. Now I wonder why she came all the way over here?" Hana cleared her throat and the huskies stopped their rubbing their heads on him, and licking his face. "That is simple, Hinata sent a shadow clone to request for reinforcements, and that is one reason why I am here. But the question I have for you is this, aren't happy to see me my love?"

Naruto knew that her tone could mean only one thing. He had to make sure she knew he was indeed happy to see her, or he was going to be in the proverbial doghouse for a long time. "Hana, I was just surprised that all, and of course I am happy that you came to help me out. Now how about you give me a kiss? or am I only going to be kissed by our kids?"

Hana took her up in her arms and kissed him passionately on his lips. It was so passionate that the bridge crew stopped for a second to watch. Tazuna had to quite literally asked the crew if they wanted to finish the bridge or stare at the kissing honeymooners for a little while longer? The crew went to work as they saw the blush on Tazuna's face. "Some people are just more lucky than others. I hope your wife lives a lot longer than mine did, Naruto. Cause I don't wish that sort of pain on anyone, I know the loss of losing your beloved, believe it."

Just as Naruto was kissing Hana they both felt a rather violent presence. "So I finally made it back, to fight you and what do I find? My opponent on the ground being licked by three dogs and his bitch. I hurried since you told my son, that you wanted to finally fight me for real, but I find this!? I might have as well rested for another week." Naruto gave Hana a quick kiss and he got up. "Ok, let me get a few things straight."

"First those dogs are like my kids, so you don't insult my kids, specially since you got a transvestite as your son. Second, I was ready to try and take it easy on you, but after that bitch comment, I am going to beat the idea to respect women into that empty skull of yours."

"Well that is more like it. Come and try, little man. I am more experienced that you, but why don't we keep your bitch some company. Haku sure would love to have a chat with her." Haku used his ice skills to place Hana in a dome of ice mirrors. "And I am not a transvestite, it was a disguise you moron."

"Now put on your best shoes and let's dance." Zabuza took his sword in hand and tried to strike Naruto down. He stopped his attack with a single kunai. It was a rather strange kunai at that. He took out a scroll and jumped up in the air, as he unsealed and threw kunai after kunai. In a matter of seconds Zabuza was surrounded by all the kunai he managed to deflect.

"Well you are either have the worst aim, or you need some glasses." Naruto grinned at him and with of of the same kunai that had been hitting the concrete around him. "You wanted to dance, well here goes nothing." He activated every single kunai. The ends began to glow a rather eerie color, and as Zabuza tried to strike him down, he missed since he was gone in a flash.

"Oi, Zabuza and I need glasses? I am over here." Zabuza tried to hit him again and he was gone like before. After 10 tries and much anger he figured something out, but there was no way that a punk could know that technique, the guy had killed an entire battalion using it, but he was dead. "I think that's enough for your warm up, now time for you to die."

Hana was sitting inside the dome and was looking at Haku in one of his mirrors. "What do you even see in that guy? I mean he is rude, crude, and completely uncaring. Not to mention he is the meanest guy I ever met. So what do you see in him anyways?" At first the triplets tried to break the mirrors but they repaired as fast as they broke. Seeing that it was futile to try she sat down, "What do I see in him? Let's see he has the kind of body that makes me want him just by seeing him without his shirt on, he likes everything I do, treats my girls here like no one ever did, and if the most gentle, kind and tender lover ever."

"Are we talking about the same guy? You know the guy who called me a transvestite?" Hana told him that he must have put on many kimonos to even manage to get one on. They were not exactly a one piece type of clothing after all. "Alright, I admit it, I put on quite a few since people tend to take it easier on women than on men." Hana told him that Naruto never discriminated her based on her gender.

She began to tell Haku stories that were unbelievable to Haku but all true. "So he puts on an act too. He is just like I am. Excuse me, Hana but as much as I like this chat, I have to stop those two from killing each other. Boy, I really should have seen this coming." The mirrors were undone, and when the two saw what Naruto was doing, Haku could not believe it. "Flight of the thunder god. It's impossible, the only person who could use it is dead."

"Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze, you stop that this instant, or no hanky panky for you for an entire year." That pretty much stopped Zabuza and Naruto for different reasons. Naruto stopped because he was practically ordered by his lover, Zabuza stopped from hearing that he had the same last name as his long lost friend. Kushina Uzumaki. Haku even stopped due to the embarrassment from hearing a grown woman scream about hanky panky out in the open.

"But Hana, I have to kill this idiot or he will kill our client." Hana told him that was not necessary. He asked him if he saw his team anywhere near him? Naruto had to admit where the hell where his team? Anko appeared out of a bush carrying one bundle, and Hinata and Shino another. "Sorry to keep you waiting. But this guy had a few more guys protecting him than Tazuna did."

Anko opened the bundle and down came a pile of head, and the last one to top the pile, was none other than Gato. "Dad, I don't think we are getting paid." Hinata told him he could not be more wrong. She and Shino threw at him the bundle they were carrying and it hit him like a ton of bricks. "What the hell is in this thing?" Hinata told the people listening that Gato liked to keep most of his money in the form of gold ingots.

"I think you two will be able to like quite the life with that much gold, don't you think so?" Naruto using the Chakra chains picked up every single kunai and he resealed them as Zabuza and Haku were very happy to hear that. Zabuza could have enough money to pay for his freedom from Kiri and then some. "Well that is all nice and everything, but how the hell are we supposed to drink, when you bunch pretty much killed our meal ticket?"

The thugs Gato had hired where clearly upset. Naturo's shadow clones took out their 2nd storage scroll and with the scroll of the other they launched a hail storm of kunai at the thugs, they all managed to evade them and the clones dispelled. "You guys stay and enjoy the show." Naruto was gone in a red flash and just as they were about to blink, every single thug was dead. "I am not the Demon of Konoha for nothing!"

Tazuna could hardly believe it. The clones were a diversion, the only real kunai were the ones that Naruto threw from both scrolls he had on him. Gato was dead, his thugs too, and he was alive to tell the tale. "So I guess we should really be gone, say good bye to the lady, Haku." Haku did as his father commanded and they both took the bundle of gold bars. "Not a bad day now was it, Zabuza? See ya around."

Zabuza and Haku were pretty grateful for what the blond and his team did, in fact they were so grateful that they returned to Kiri to aid Mei Terumi in overthrowing the kage that continued to his war to exterminate the bloodline users in the nation. Zabuza had once been saved by Kushina Uzumaki, and from her he learned the basics of the silent killing method. He could not help himself, he smiled when he thought of how similar Naruto was to her. He had saved him, just like his mother.

"Dad you alright?" Zabuza kissed his son on his forehead. "Yes, son I am fine. It's just that it is amazing how sometimes a child will behave so much like one of the parents." Haku told him that was why people said that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. "And you remind me of your mother, with that wisecracking mouth of yours." Both Haku and Zabuza were closer than ever and it was thanks to an Uzumaki no less.

The bridge was finished faster than anyone expected. With his shadow clones Naruto was an army of helpers. Tazuna joked that maybe he should stick around and help rebuild the entire town. As Naruto and his team left he turned around asked him simply one question. He asked what did he mean rebuild the town? Tazuna explained how damaged the town was. "Tazuna you need glasses, you know that?" As Naruto walked with his team, and Hana was by his side, he released his genjutsu.

"Tsunami, wasn't our town all damaged due to living under Gato?" Tsunami told him that Naruto used his shadow clones to repair the buildings since he first arrived at their house. He even fixed the plumbing and electrical wiring of the house. "You know Tsunami, I think I need glasses." Tsunami laughed and told her dad she been telling him that for years.

Inari walked out of the house, and asked the one question that the rest of the town wanted to know the answer to. "What is the bridge going to be called?" The bridge would be known for ages and it would always be called. The Great Naruto Bridge, the plaque at the side of the entrance to the bridge told the tale on how a young man saved everyone from a great tragedy.

Inari would one day be the lord of wave, and he was always pushed forward by the belief that he should concentrate on the things he could change, and prevent the things he could stop. Never loss hope, and never let himself use excuses to slack off, he was known as the wisest and most responsible lords that wave had ever know, but how he became this way you ask? Let's just say a certain demon would come through his town and give him a pull on his ears and teach him another lesson when he least expected him.

"So who is looking forward to the Chuunin Exams?" Anko was looking rather shocked. "What, the people at our favorite restaurant have been talking about that for weeks. Honestly, Bane has not stopped telling me to get ready, he talks about it at every chance he gets. And there is the renovations to the inn and local shops too. I want to have a grand time, maybe show my idiot bother in law what the cost of slacking off really is."

Hana kissed him on his lips, but asked her to make sure that they would get through it alive. Like it or not he was going to be part of the family, and he wouldn't want to deprive their future kids from having an uncle now would he? Naruto joked that he might be a bad influence on their kids. "Oh, don't you worry about that I will make sure they don't become slackers like their uncle. You know what they say the apple doesn't fall far.. I am sure we will have a bunch of little kids just like us."


	8. Chapter 8

"This is a fan fiction, I do not own Naruto in any from being anime, games or published format."

Naruto was getting more than a bit annoyed. Bane for some reason simply would not shut up about the coming Chuunin Exams. It was when he was eating his favorite soup that he accidentally bumped into Naruto and cause him to spill his soup. That was the last straw that broke the camel's back. "Bane, seriously the Exams are no major event, it is just a series of Exams that have a bunch of kids end up fighting each other, for the amusement of some nobles or rich merchants. Most don't even pass. I know I am going to be bored to Yoshi, Can I have another bowl of soup over here, thanks to Bane, I am practically wearing the last one."

Yoshi told him that to them the Chuunin Exams were exciting and a new opportunity to see some actual combat, to which Naruto told him that if they want combat, go and see Bane wrestle. Hild brough him his soup and told him he could use some jutsu to clean up, that would be great. He did and she smiled and thanked him for that by paying for his new bowl of soup.

"So how you and Fenrir doing lately?" Honestly he wished Hild would not ask that. "Great, in fact we already have a date set for the wedding." Yoshi had to ask when it was supposed to happen, and he told them after the graduation ceremony of the Chuunin Exams. Naruto told him that the only thing stopping him was that he needed to be Chuunin to be considered of age to be allowed to marry. "As soon as I get my vest, it's good bye, freedom and dating, and life with my beloved ball and chain here I come."

Hild joked that he did not sound to happy, finally Bane changed topics. "Well can you blame him? Before the wedding, he could sleep around, date other beautiful women, and even stay up late or go on missions whenever he wants. And you wonder why I stayed single." Hild told him that he stayed single because she would never marry a womanizer, and she then asked if anyone actually believed that Fenrir would let Demon cheat on her? She left laughing and saying that if he did, they would be attending his funeral.

"Yoshi, I know she means well, but she really been taking a great joy at taking potshot at me. What gives?" Yoshi told him that she had hoped that he at least would date her, before he threw that privilege away. Naruto told him that Hana was everything he ever wanted, and was fun to be with. Yoshi then asked him why make the ball and chain comment then. Naruto admitted that he sometimes liked to throw comments to keep people guessing and to make other laugh sometimes.

Something that the entire place actually appreciated him for doing sometimes. "You and I both know that the village depends on the missions those nobles and rich merchants bring in. So it would make sense to show off you village's skills to promote business. I know it is distasteful, and some would call it shameful, but it is necessary. That is why teaching genin teams is so important. They teach things that would save their students live later."

Naruto finished hiss soup and paid for both bowls. "Tell that to Kakashi Hakate and his team. I would be surprised if he taught anything to someone besides Sasuke." The entire place agreed with him. They all expected him to favor Sasuke, but not for what most would think. Kakashi was grateful to his old rival for saving his life, so he did that to pay his debt to him. The reason he was always late was because he couldn't sleep so well. He had nightmares of Rin every single night.

"All in all, I am not going to hold back, and I will do my best on these exams, so I hope that you all enjoy the show." Every person in the place looked rather happy to see him act so sure of himself. Yes, indeed everyone that was considered a regular was very proud of knowing Naruto Uzumaki, the Demon of Konoha.

Naruto walked towards his apartment, and was quite happy to see Hana was already there. The union of his senses to Kurama gave his sense of smell a boost that would make a wolf green with envy. "Looks like we are having stew tonight, smells good, and I just finished eating a bowl of soup." Kurama was quick to mention that if he played around with the triplets first he could workup and appetite again. "At the very least it's not ramen, dear god all mighty how I hate that stuff." Kurama clearly not liking ramen he had to stop and ask why.

"Why? is that even a question? Let's start with the fact that has very little meat to speak of, loaded with salt, and if you try to eat it cold, it tastes like you are eating rubber. Your mate's cooking is far better than anything prepared in any restaurant, except the den." Naruto joked that maybe he felt like that because he still had a bit of a crush on Hild. Kurama could not deny it, there was something primal about her that really interested him. But since he was pretty much a part of him, and he would never cheat on Hana, that was pretty much left to Kurama's imagination.

Naruto walked to his apartment and wondered if he wan in the right place. Security door, instead of the piece of plywood he called a door, a small cat door on the bottom, or it could be a doggy door since they did have three living with them. He found a letter in his usual spot, telling him that his apartment needed a few touches, to make it more feel like home. The key was his chakra, he simply needed to put some through the door and it should open.

Well that pretty much insured that no more smelly graffiti for his place. He walked in and was amazed new bed, carpets, appliances and even high impact resistant windows, this thing could stand one hell of a punch by Kurama and that was saying something. "Hana, what happened? did a wondering construction crew take pity on my place or what?"

Hana walked over to him and kissed him on his lips. "No silly, I am going to live here, so of course I remodeled it hope you like it." Naruto told her the problem was not if he liked it, the problem was going to be if the triplets could fit through that door. "Don't be silly, they can change their size with the use of chakra. They maybe young, but they are considered ninja after all."

"So what do you think? You ready to meet my mom or do you still think that she will blow her top when she looks who is the man who makes me so happy?" Naruto could tell her that he would after he was a chuunin, but thanks to the days he was having there was no reason to avoid it. "Might as well get that torture over with. I just know you more is going to grill me with as many embarrassing questions as she can imagine."

"Nah, she is just going to do what most mother's do when their daughter's lover visits for the first time." Naruto then joked that he needed to wear his combat gear then, Hana told him that she wasn't planing on killing him, just get to know him. He would eventually be part of the pack and as the leader of said pack she needed to know her daughter's mate. Naruto told him would he do any different if his daughter brought home her lover? Naruto stopped arguing as she finished her question.

"Very well, I will meet with her today. Is that why you cooked that stew? or are we celebrating something new?" Hana told him that they were not celebrating anything new, no nothing new, he just finished an S rank mission that originally was a C rank. He kissed Hana yet again for being so considerate of him. "What in the world would I do without you?" Hana laughed and told him he would probably live a lonely and miserable life. "So anything I need to know?" Naruto was clearly asking about the meeting.

"Well, besides the fact that my mother will ask you a lot of questions, Kiba is going to be there. So I would get ready to be on the receiving end of an Inuzuka fang over fang." Naruto was quite clear that if he did, he better be ready to receive a pounding. He was never going to be the guy who took the hits, and did nothing, not ever again. "So let's get to eat, the triplets are already having a nice bone each." Naruto held her close, "So am I... So am I..." Hana slapped his hand, and told him first the stew, then they could have their fun, and then a bath. In her words, he did not want to arrive smelling bad to his first meeting with her mother.

So that is exactly what they did. They had the stew which was delicious, and nutritious, they went through half a pack of condoms, and 30 minutes of love making, they took a bath together and ended up doing it in there too, so the shower took a little longer than usual. When they arrived to the compound they were greeted by a rather large one eyed dog. Tsume was quite happy to see that Naruto was not frightened by her partner.

When they entered into the home, they were also greeted by Kiba and Akamaru. Akamaru was nice and friendly but Kiba being the idiot that he was, demanded to know why he was holding Hana's arm like that. "Because he is my lover. I would think that was obvious." Hana sure knew how to tell things. "He's your what!" Kiba was about to attack Naruto when the three huskies jumped in front of him. "You leave daddy alone, or we use you as our newest chew toy."

Tsume was sitting on a couch enjoying the show. "Boy those three really took a shine to you. And here I was going to ask how serious you were with my Hana. Guess that pretty much answers that question. So tell me Naruto mind answering some of my questions?" Naruto told her as long as she did not mind the answers, he would answer.

"So Naruto how many times have you slept with my daughter?" Naruto told her that he did not count them, he simply enjoyed them each as it was the first time. "When do you plan to marry Hana, by our partner's standards you are mated, but when do I get to see my girl in a frilly wedding dress?" Naruto told her that he needed to be Chuunin before that happened, so he would try and pass the coming Chuunin Exams. So they probably will need to wait a month for the rank and a little later for him to get enough money to pay for the wedding.

Hana was smiling, Kiba was frowning and both the huskies and Akamaru look happy for some reason. "How many grandkids am I going to get?" Naruto told her as many as Hana would be willing to have. He told her that she would do most of the work, so she gets to decide how many kids they would have. Hana shocked everyone in the room, by saying that if that was the case they were going to have four.

"You might rethink that after your first, trust me, nobody expects pain on that level, till you have your first child." Tsume was quite right of course, but Naruto simply said that she would decide. "So how is the fox doing these days?" Naruto told her grumpy as all hell. He simply considered any time he spent doing anything romantic to be a waste of training time. Tsume decide to say that it was the reason why he never got married in the first place.

Tsume asked if they ate dinner, and Naruto thanked her for the invitation, but they had some of Hana's stew before coming over to the compound. "So Naruto mind telling me about your last mission?" Naruto began to tell them all about the mission, everyone was simply speechless as Naruto told the tale of him meeting the infamous demon of the mist and lived to tell the tale. By the end of their visit she asked Hana how much did she love Naruto. "He is my everything, the best friend, lover and mate I could ever dream of. So I can't wait to see him in his vest. I am looking forwards to be finally be officially his wife."

The couple left towards Naturo's place, and so did the triplets. "So I guess I only have to wait a little more than a month then." Kiba asked her how in the world was Naruto going to pass since he was such a loser. "I happen to know that you will have to fight him. So how about we make a bet? If he fights you and you win, you don't have to do chores for a month, but if you lose, they you respect your sister's mate, and clean toilets for one month. Well? do you take the bet or not?" Kiba of course agreed on the terms of that bet. He truly believed that there was no way for him to lose to Naruto.


	9. Chapter 9

This is a fan fiction, I do not own Naruto in any from being anime, games or published format.

The following day Anko gave them all the paperwork they would need, to be able to enter the Chuunin Exams, she also told them that she could not tell them what to expect, since she was going to be a proctor during a phase of the exams. But he did tell them to train as if they lives depended on it. Naruto smiled, and simply said that it was what he always did, He did thank her for the advice though.

Hinata told them that she was going to enter, and Sai said that he wouldn't miss it for the world. "So we all enter, and we shall see what we face tomorrow. But I wouldn't worry too much. We are going to have a blast during the exams, I can hardly wait to see how difficult the exams are going to be. We will show everyone that a team that grows strong together, can beat any challenge."

Naruto extended his hand and his team mates placed theirs on top of his. "But we do not abandon our own. If we see that one of the leaf is in danger, we will save that person." Hinata was quite clear on her point, Sai on the other hand, was also quite clear. "But we will punish those that threaten the leaf." Anko could not be happier. And told them that she expected them to pass, and make sure to eat properly, that they wouldn't want to fail because they were not prepared.

Naruto told them that they would meet at the academy early, so that they could go in together. Naruto walked down the streets that lead to his home. He could honestly say that it was now not just an apartment he lived in, but an actual home. "I wonder should I pick up anything special for dinner. Can't have Hana cook all our meals, now can I?" The shop owner told him that he would not sell him a thing. So he had no alternative he would have to gather food on his own.

He went to hunt in the forest of death, and many animals tried to kill him, but thanks to his training made them all run scared. He managed to kill a couple of large bears, and found some fruit trees and a few herbs. But as he was walking towards the exit to the forest he fell down a deep dark hole, it felt like he was falling for a long time. But something big broke his fall.

"So someone finally decided to visit me. Tell me, human, how about you introduce yourself. I am the boss of my clan, you may call me, Cerberus. I lead the Hellhound Clan." Naruto introduced himself and that made the large beast smile. "So it seems my old friend Minato, actually kept his promise. Your father promised me that if he had a son, he would allow me to test him, and if he passed he would be our newest summoner in over 2,000 years."

"So what is the test?" Just as Naruto asked the ground gave way and he felt like he was falling into a pit. At the bottom he hit hard and was unconscious for a little bit. He began to look around and found a path that could lead to the way out. On the path he saw a man beating up a young woman. Calling her every insulting thing a human could call a young woman. He rushed towards him and took hold of his arm.

"Now if you don't want to lose this thing, you will calm down and tell me what is going on?" The man said the woman was his wife and he believed that she had cheated on him. She actually admitted that she indeed cheat on him, because he had forced her to marry him in the first place. When Naruto asked what the man did, she cried and said that he threatened to kill the love of her life and father of her children. "Look, she cheated on you, but that doesn't give you the right to beat her or treat her like this. Divorce her, don't give her anything, but don't treat her like this."

The man told him that he would sooner kill her than let her free. This pretty much proved that the young woman was telling the truth. Naruto took out a kunai put it to his throat. "You will leave her alone, or you will die. And believe me I am being quite merciful. So what do you chose?" The man seeing that he was serious told him that he would divorce her and she would not get anything. His life was more valuable than her anyways.

He walked away and the young woman thanked him for what he did. As she hugged him in thanks the man and woman disappeared. "Great, a genjutsu test. I should have expected this." Naruto continued to walk and then he found an old lady carrying a large jug of water. He told the lady to put the water jug down, and when she did he picked it up. "Where do you want this thing?" The old lady smile and told him that she just needed to rest her shoulders a little bit. The old lady walked along side him and asked him. "Why do you help me? You don't know me or owe me anything." Naruto said that he respected his elders.

As soon as he said it the old lady and jug where gone. He did not stop and continued to walk down a path, he saw several people in cages and some rather heavily armed men guarding. "This bunch will sell good at the market... and people say selling slaves is wrong." Naruto sneaked behind the cage and putting wind chakra into his kunai he sliced the bars and put them carefully down on the ground.

"Ok, folks don't talk, no noise follow me I will keep you safe, till we get away." A young man asked why should they trust him? He could be with the slavers and this was a trick to get them to move to the market without making a commotion. "The choice is simply follow me to freedom, or stay and be sold into slavery." Everyone went along with him on the path that he believed would lead on the way out.

As soon as they were far enough, the young man jumped him and tried to capture him. It was clear that this was their preferred method of capturing their victims. Pretend to be an innocent guy and then knock him out and cage him. He held the young man by the throat in a choker hold and told the rest of the group to go on ahead, that he would make sure that they would not be followed. "Well the guys in the exit will simply catch them again."

With a swift move he broke his neck and he ran after the group of people. But they disappeared too. Cerberus was waiting for him seated at the top of a small mound. "So Naruto why did you threaten the man? His wife cheated on him? He was the victim why help her?" Naruto told him that the man forced the woman to marry, that if she was not willing she was not his wife, no matter how much he claimed. "If she was willing then she would be his wife. I would never force my beloved Hana to do anything against her will."

"The old lady why did you carry the large jug? You owed her nothing, and would earn nothing in return." Naruto told him that his entire village except a few people treated him like garbage and if he ever met a kind old lady like her and she needed help, why would he refuse to help? He would respect his elders. This made the big beast smile.

"You killed a guy that you wanted to try and save, how can you excuse doing that?" Naruto told him that he would never make excuses, but the man was a slaver pretending to be an innocent person. He pretended to be a victim, but he made several mistakes. "First he showed no signs of being maltreated, like the rest. Second, he did not look like he missed any meals, and last but not least he tried to capture me to add me to his victims, and prevent his merchandise from escaping."

"Well I guess you actually pass. We value honor, but we don't approve of cowards or slackers. The couple fighting showed that you understand fairness, The old lady shows you know compassion, and the slavers showed that you know and will do what is necessary to protect the innocent. All in all I could not have asked for a better summoner. Come over here. Sign the scroll under my right paw, with your blood and close your eyes."

He signed it but he did not understand why he would need to close his eyes. When he did the large beast became as small as Tsume's partner. He then bite him on the wrist hard. He opened his eyes and saw him arm was not bleeding. "I must administer the clan mark. I bite you, and where it did the mark shall appear. Should you require any help from us, simply put blood on the mark and we will come to your aid."

"Actually I need a way out of this cave. Care to help me with that." Cerberus laughed and told asked him just one question. "What cave?" It hit him like a ton of bricks, he had been in a genjutsu the entire time. The only thing that were real were the scroll and Cerberus. "I really need to study genjutsu more carefully." Cerberus told him not to worry, he was sure that he would teach him soon enough, the big beast grew to normal size and he banished too.

He got the last of his ingredients and ran towards his home. He began to cook a full meal, including was cooking up a lot of things, who said that shadow clones were not useful for other things besides combat? He could do a whole lot of things, and he wouldn't be the man he is, if not for the memory sharing feature. They helped him learn better, faster and become stronger. They still helped him perfect his arsenal of jutsu and collaboration attacks.

When Hana entered their home, she felt like someone has slipped her a glass of the strongest sake, she saw several dozen shadow clones and her mate cooking. "So what are we celebrating?" Naruto told her that he simply wanted to cook something for his beloved. "Well did you take care of the laundry too?" This was meant and received as a joke and he smiled. "Sure have, your clothes are cleaned, folded and in our drawers. Hope you have an appetite, cause I got some real good stuff."

Wild berry pie, grilled bear stakes and baked wild potatoes and onions, sweet and sour snake fritters and crock dumplings too. He even prepared something for the triplets, and when the three huskies saw it they jumped on Naruto, and licked his face in appreciation. "Naruto I happen to know that they don't sell this kind of ingredients at the local shops. Don't tell me you went hunting in the forest of death alone again?"

Naruto told her as he finished drying his hands and taking off the apron. He told his shadow clones that they did a job well done and to dispel like always 10 at a time with a few second interval. They did, and he still felt dizzy. He believed that maybe one day if he mastered it, maybe he could stop feeling dizzy. "The shops behaved like always, like I should not even breath in their shops. So I had to hunt for the ingredients in the forest of death. Anko always says it's like an immense grocery store."

"While I can't argue that you can find a lot of things in that place, the price for shopping there is to risk your life. That place is deadly, and is the reason why it's named like it is. I appreciate that you want to help me with the things around the house, but I don't want you to risk your life, if I can go and buy the ingredients for you." Naruto told her that it wouldn't be a surprise then..

The huskies loved what Naruto prepared, they went to their pads and fell asleep, you could almost imagine them smiling as they fell asleep. Hana enjoyed the food and the talk about the upcoming Exams, and most of all finding the mythical contract, that so many had tried to find, and failed to obtain. "It was in the forest of death the entire time, no wonder no one ever found it."

"So you really plan to enter with your team?" Naruto kissed her and she was happy to receive his kiss. "Yes, Hana I must pass and become a chuunin, and when I do. We can start preparing for our wedding. I do not want the council to use a technically to try and separate us. I love you, and I want to remain by your side, always." Hana asked him if there would be a time when he finally trusted the council? Naruto told her that it could happen, it's just that it would be more likely that Jiraiya would stop writing smut and start writing romance novels.

"So in other words, you will never trust the council. I understand where you are coming from, but I need to remind you my mother is a member of the ninja side of the council. And she would never do something to hurt him, now that he was technically part of the pack." Naruto told her that she was only one person, they could still overrule her by a majority vote. Even if the Hokage used his own vote, they could pass a law that could harm them.


End file.
